Image: Drazen Jurina
Outgoing Dandenong City technical director Ljuban Palinic has thanked the club for enabling him the opportunity to forge a promising coaching career after seven years of service with the club.
The 25-year-old announced his departure from the role recently after occupying various coaching positions at Frank Holohan Soccer Complex since the turn of the decade.
He had occupied the role of technical director for two years having succeeded Aaron Healey in the position after the former Melbourne Victory assistant was appointed manager of the senior side.
Palinic’s exit came in conjunction with the departure of Healey, as well as senior assistant Gerry McDonagh and 20s coach Bernie Moyano, with the club seeking new personnel for the 2017 campaign.
“I would like to thank the club for providing me with the opportunity to be technical director where I was able to lead Dandenong City’s youth development program,” he said.
“It was a challenging and rewarding experience and one which I learnt an immense amount from, which I believe will serve me well in the future.”
“It was a mutual decision to step down from the TD role as the club and I were looking to go in different directions. I believe it’s necessary for me to further my knowledge by gaining some first-hand senior coaching experience, whether that be in a head coaching role or as an assistant.”
Palinic made his senior playing breakthrough with Hajduk in 2009 under Toby Paterson and then Ivan Duzel, before moving to the Oakleigh Cannons a year later where he was coached by John Anastasiadis, famously scoring a spectacular strike in a pre-season friendly against Melbourne Heart.
He returned to City the following season, winning promotion to the second tier with the club, before calling time on his playing career in 2012 to dedicate more focus on his coaching.
Over that period, Palinic began making inroads into coaching and established his own academy alongside former Oakleigh teammate and A-League midfielder Nick Kalmar.
The LPNK Soccer Academy has coached hundreds of juniors in recent years with some of their coaches being current players such as Michael Marrone, Aziz Behich, Andy Jerez, Phil Petreski and Gulcan Koca.
Palinic expressed his gratitude towards City for enabling him to use the club’s facilities as an academy base while also allowing him the access to form connections with respective coaches.
“Last year we also had the privilege of bringing former Barcelona youth Coach Joan Della Morte to the city through the help of David Davutovic and Craig Foster. To work with someone of that calibre and pedigree was an incredible experience as he had a lot of interesting ideas and philosophies”, Palinic noted.
At the moment, Palinic is working in conjunction with good friend and Socceroo Ivan Franjic in expanding the Football Technique Australia programs, which aims to improve the technical aspects in players but also is looking forward to his next step within club football.